An EPG serves to provide broadcasting program schedule information through a TV screen, and is mainly used for digital broadcasting.
A conventional EGP provides information on broadcasting programs of all channels, and a display method thereof has a table form which basically includes a channel axis and a time axis, like a TV schedule table provided by print media such as newspaper and magazine. That is, the display method of the conventional EGP is provided in such a form that is obtained by reproducing the TV schedule table of print media on a TV screen.
FIG. 1 is a screen shot showing a first example of a conventional EPG, and FIG. 2 is a screen shot showing a second example of a conventional EPG.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional EPG provided through a digital TV screen has a table which includes channel information set at the vertical axis and time zones set at the horizontal axis, and broadcasting program information corresponding to each channel and time is arranged in the table. Therefore, a viewer can figure out broadcasting programs, as if the viewer looked at a TV schedule table of print media. However, the EPG can display only programs corresponding to four or five channels and two-hour time zone on one screen, because the TV screen has a limited space. Accordingly, a lot of scroll operations are required.
The reason that a viewer utilizes the EPG may be explained as follows. First, the viewer may select a desired broadcasting program which can be currently watched among the entire channels. Second, the viewer may search for a broadcasting program worth to watch after the present time.
However, when the conventional EPG having a channel-time table form is used, it may be a little uncomfortable for the viewer to quickly figure out which programs are currently broadcast for the entire channels.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional EPG displays currently-broadcast programs which are arranged along the vertical channel axis. Therefore, a viewer should move a cell by ones to check the entire channels. For example, when one hundred channels need to be checked, one hundred remote control manipulations should be performed, which is very inefficient. At this time, a page move key may be separately provided. In this case, the cell move key and the page move key should be alternately used. Furthermore, in order to manipulate the page move key, a viewer should look at the remote control again while seeing the TV screen. In particular, when several tens or hundreds of channels are provided as in the cable or satellite broadcasting, the conventional EPG having a TV schedule form cannot sufficiently satisfy such a viewer's request.